Purpose

Use this lesson to combine task, context, constraints, and output format. The aim is to produce work that a colleague can review and act on, not merely text that sounds convincing.

Lesson Explanation

Scenario: Create an onboarding email.

Better instruction: Draft an onboarding email for a new B2B customer using the attached service details; keep it under 160 words; return a subject line and email body.

The task says what to do. Context supplies the material. Constraints set boundaries such as length or exclusions. Output format makes the result usable. If one part is missing, the AI has room to guess. The response contains the requested subject line and body, stays under 160 words, and uses supplied details.

Work in a short cycle: provide the relevant input, state the result and limits, inspect the draft against the acceptance criteria, then revise the instruction when a requirement is missing. Keep the final human decision with the person responsible for the work.

Practice Questions

1. A prompt says, “Summarize this report.” Which of the four parts of a strong prompt (task, context, constraints, output format) are missing?

   View Answer

   Context (what report, what it’s for), constraints (length or focus), and output format (how the summary should be structured) are all missing – only the task is stated.

2. Rewrite “Summarize this report” into a prompt containing all four parts: task, context, constraints, and output format.

   View Answer

   Something like: “Summarize the attached Q3 sales report for a leadership audience (context). Keep it under 150 words and focus only on regional performance (constraints). Return three bullet points and one summary sentence (output format).” (task: summarize)

3. A prompt states the task and the context clearly but never specifies a length limit or format. What is this lesson’s concern about the missing pieces?

   View Answer

   If one part is missing, the AI has room to guess, which may produce a result that’s the wrong length or shape for actual use.

4. What are the four parts of a strong prompt, according to this lesson?

   View Answer

   Task, context, constraints, and output format.

5. A prompt asks an AI to “write a product description” and supplies the product’s specifications, but doesn’t say how long the description should be or where it will be used. Which part is missing?

   View Answer

   Constraints (and likely output format) – length and destination/format aren’t specified.

6. A request includes a task and a length constraint, but the AI still guesses at what specific details to include. What part of a strong prompt is most likely missing?

   View Answer

   Context – the material or facts the AI should actually draw from.

7. A marketing prompt specifies the task, provides three product features as context, and asks for exactly two paragraphs. Is anything still missing, based on this lesson’s four parts?

   View Answer

   Output format may still be missing, e.g., whether it should be plain text, include a headline, or follow a specific structure.

8. Why does this lesson say “if one part is missing, the AI has room to guess”?

   View Answer

   Each of the four parts narrows what the AI should produce; without all four, ambiguous gaps get filled with the AI’s own assumptions rather than the requester’s actual intent.

9. A prompt asks for a “professional-sounding” internal memo with no other detail. Which of the four parts, if any, does this address?

   View Answer

   None clearly – “professional-sounding” isn’t a well-defined task, context, constraint, or output format on its own.

10. A well-formed prompt specifies the task (draft a customer apology), context (the shipping delay details), constraints (under 100 words, empathetic tone), and output format (email with subject line). What does this lesson say this kind of structure enables?

    View Answer

    A result that can be checked against a concrete standard, since all four elements are defined rather than left for the AI to guess.

11. A colleague’s prompt states the desired output format precisely (a three-column table) but gives no context about what data should populate it. What is missing?

    View Answer

    Context – the source material or facts the table should be built from.

12. Why does this lesson distinguish “constraints” from “output format” as two separate parts, rather than combining them?

    View Answer

    Constraints set boundaries like length or exclusions, while output format defines how the result should be structured or presented – two genuinely different kinds of requirements.